With the proliferation of computing and networking technologies, capabilities and features of software applications have increased in breadth and depth. Locally installed applications providing a single tool are increasingly replaced by hosted services that combine multiple interrelated capabilities. Outlook® from Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash. is an example of such a suite of tools. Available in locally installed or hosted service versions, this program enables users to interact via email or text messaging, schedule appointments and meetings, manage tasks and/or contacts, and perform comparable actions. The services provided by such a program are interrelated in many aspects. For example, email and text messaging (as well as meeting scheduling) services may be associated with contacts of a user, scheduled meetings may be forwarded to others via email, and so on.
A software program (or service) such as Outlook® provides a multitude of features and capabilities for each of the services it includes. These features and capabilities are compounded when the number of tools provided by the program increases. A result of this compounding is the increasing complexity of the user interface making navigation for the user more difficult. While menus and different user interfaces enable a user to navigate through individual aspects of the program, combined user interfaces leave room for improvement of user experience.